Sujiwan, there was a recent discussion on gage plums where several people pointed out how long they were taking to fruit in the mid-atlantic and midwest. People in other places seemed to have better luck. Search this forum for "gage". Your childhood plums were European types, many of which are football-shaped. The purple one could have been French prune for example. The yellow plum I'm not so sure about, I don't recall a yellow plum of that shape popular back then. The place to look is in Plums of New York, a book from around 1917 which has pictures of all of the most popular old plums. There is no good listing I know of for local diseases, but the on-line PSU small fruit guide is pretty good for our area. The most serious disease problems with plums are canker on the trees and brown rot on the fruits. Many other diseases are possible but they are not as likely. Plus the bugs: curculio and oriental fruit moth. Scott

Have you noticed the exchange page on this forum? Some of us also did a seed swap in early January. And our local biggie is the Spring Swap, usually at Gardenganma's in Burtonsville, looks like mayybe May 14 where there will be seeds, plants, garden stuff, food and good company.

Lots of good responses, thanks! aka_peggy: I will be doing most of the work myself, with other friends adding a bit of labor. Thanks for the plant ideas and the link to natives. I am big on natives, so will definitely use this! annabert: I'll send her to Thanksgiving Farms--do they have nice designs going all year 'round? Could she go in January? GardenGranma: Wow, so many shows and tours! If I could only choose 3 or 4 to attend (I have to fly up there and all, LOL), which would you recommend? creatrix: The CM will be any variety that gets about 10" high or so. Down here, we have a variety called Natchez that I love, but I'm not sure it is available in your area. The bed at the house is about 6' deep and, yes, I plan to put in a hedge row and then a smaller variety in front of that. I need to take a closer look at this though, once I have the measurements. The curves are supposed to be gentle and flowing, not scalloped. I guess my picture appears a bit busy, LOL, but that isn't my intention. Brent_in_NoVa: Thanks for reminding me about foot traffic. I think I will add a stone 'landing' so that people walking up the drive won't be crammed between a parked car and the bed. My parents have the same type of walk/drive and it is a pain for this very reason. For the retaining wall, I think this is probably as high as it will go. She really doesn't want it at all, but I think it is necessary for erosion control. Other homes have the same slope and very few have walls. One the right side of the property, I would like to pull the neighbor's yard into hers, hence the river birch. There is more room than it appears, and I wanted something that would get pretty dense. She has probably 15' of that part of the land, but I will need to measure again. I will be posting a 'real' landscape design once I have the measurements. I think this will help me (us!) to gain some perspective. Thanks again, keep your thoughts coming! Chris

Everything costs too much. Gas is out of this world. Food prices are going up. College trust funds? You must be kidding, right? With the families insurance, school expenses, clothing costs, baby sitter fee, rent, car payments, car insurance, renters insurance, phone bill, grocery bill, utilities....etc. etc. There is little left! We get no help from mom at all for nothing. I have a child of my own on the way and two others that are not mine that I am financialy responsible for because without me they would have to go without alot of things. I'm not going to let them go without. That isn't an option. I can tell you trust funds arn't gonna happen. We are killing ourselves making it week to week. The economy is hard right now. It isn;t that I wouldn't LOVE to pay their way through a kick ass Ivy League school because I would. I always say "If we won the lottery....." but the chances of that are slim to none. The real SCARY thing is I make decent money. How to people making only minimum wage make it?